Parish Registers – other entries

Besides the Christenings, Marriages and Burials that make up the majority of the extant Parish Registers for Holywell-cum-Needingworth, there are various other items in some of the Registers. These are included in the transcriptions, as listed below.

A Note about Collections upon a Brief

(From here, about a Derbyshire parish, with thanks.)Special collections in the parish were frequently made “by virtue of Letters Patent”, or a Brief. The Brief, which was read out in Church, was a mandate from the Privy Council ordering collections to be made for special objects outside the parish, such as building churches, relieving sufferers by fire, refugees, suffering Protestants abroad, &c. A large number of these Briefs received at Hope, which are entered in the Churchwardens’ Book, are for losses by fire.

There was a certain collection by Brief in 1686 for “French Protestants”; and another in 1689 for “Irish Protestants”. “For losse by Fire in ye parish of St. George in Southwark” in 1690; “for casualties at sea” in 1692; “for losse by fire in Hedon, concomitant with yt for ye redemption of captives” in 1693; and again in 1700 “Paid to ye Brief for ye Captives 10s. 2d.”: “for ye poor distressed Palatines”, the inhabitants of the Palatine States of Germany, in 1709.

There is an interesting entry in 1752: “Collected upon the Brief for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts”. The Society known as the S.P.G., the oldest of the Missionary Societies, was founded in 1701. There are also entries for the “Colleges in America” and for the “relief of the distressed clergymen in America” in 1763 and 1779 respectively.